Thursday, March 29, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
SONGWRITING LEGEND ERIC ANDERSEN PLOTS GRAMMY MUSEUM Q&A AND PERFORMANCE MAY 3, MCCABE’S GUITAR SHOP SHOW MAY 5
‘THE ESSENTIAL ERIC ANDERSEN’ 2CD SET OUT FRIDAY ON SONY LEGACY / REAL GONE
Songwriting legend Eric Andersen, whose first career retrospective, the 2CD ‘The Essential Eric Andersen,’ comes out this Friday on Sony Legacy / Real Gone, will appear in a Q&A with Executive Director Scott Goldman and short set at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles on May 3 and perform a full set at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica on May 5. Early buzz on ‘The Essential Eric Andersen’ has Brooklyn Vegan lauding his “impressive career” in posting “great song” “Violets of Dawn” and Pop Matters praising his “illustrious career.”
The NY Times has said, “Impressive… Very few songwriters have built a body of work as consistently strong as Mr. Andersen's.”
Bob Dylan said, “Eric Andersen is a great ballad singer and writer.”
Performers joining Andersen on the compilation include Joni Mitchell, David Bromberg, Leon Russell, Joan Baez, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, and Lou Reed. Andersen and the late Phil Ochs duet on “Plains of Nebrasky-o.” Comprehensive liner notes by the songwriter himself and Rolling Stone and NY Times writer and Lou Reed biographer Anthony DeCurtis accompany the compilation. A press copy of the liner notes is here: http://bit.ly/2D5k63o
Songwriting legend Eric Andersen, whose first career retrospective, the 2CD ‘The Essential Eric Andersen,’ comes out this Friday on Sony Legacy / Real Gone, will appear in a Q&A with Executive Director Scott Goldman and short set at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles on May 3 and perform a full set at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica on May 5. Early buzz on ‘The Essential Eric Andersen’ has Brooklyn Vegan lauding his “impressive career” in posting “great song” “Violets of Dawn” and Pop Matters praising his “illustrious career.”
The NY Times has said, “Impressive… Very few songwriters have built a body of work as consistently strong as Mr. Andersen's.”
Bob Dylan said, “Eric Andersen is a great ballad singer and writer.”
Performers joining Andersen on the compilation include Joni Mitchell, David Bromberg, Leon Russell, Joan Baez, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, and Lou Reed. Andersen and the late Phil Ochs duet on “Plains of Nebrasky-o.” Comprehensive liner notes by the songwriter himself and Rolling Stone and NY Times writer and Lou Reed biographer Anthony DeCurtis accompany the compilation. A press copy of the liner notes is here: http://bit.ly/2D5k63o
Monday, March 26, 2018
The Go-Rounds photos
Click for high res
Above credit: John Hanson
Above credit: John Hanson
Credit: Maren Celest
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Dharmasoul bio
Drums,
guitar, and vocals are the backbone and energy behind the new album
LIGHTNING KID, the debut record of New Jersey based power-duo
Dharmasoul. With Jonah Tolchin on guitar, Kevin Clifford on drums, and
the two singing both lead and backup vocals, this duo brings their
songwriting and production chops to their new band Dharmasoul. Audiences
who’ve heard the two in concert look around to see who else is playing
up on stage due to the fullness of the sound and the sheer energy of
these musicians as they pour every bit of creativity and originality
into their compositions, improvisatory performance, and expert
musicianship.
Although Dharmasoul is difficult to narrow down into one genre, they
can best be described through their noted influences of contemporary
artists such as Medeski Martin Wood & Scofield, Vulfpeck, D’Angelo,
Soulive, Snarky Puppy, and Lettuce as well as throwback influences
including The Meters, Staple Singers, Otis Redding, The Allman Brothers
Band, and Stevie Wonder.
Jonah and Kevin have been on contrasting yet complementary musical
journeys since childhood, but each time their paths converged, they
discovered an inspirational energy that they now bring to the music of
Dharmasoul. Although they both grew up in Princeton, NJ, they met for
the first time when they were fifteen at the 2008 National Guitar
Workshop in Connecticut, a multi-instrumental camp. Their cohort had
only one drummer (Kevin) and many guitar players, but Jonah and Kevin
found themselves playing together on the one night out in a real
club—where suddenly the audience got really quiet and listened--and
later that summer they got together to jam in Kevin’s basement.
When Jonah arrived at the camp he was already a passionate blues guitar
player. At the age of 15 he met and jammed with blues legend Ronnie
Earl in a music shop in Keene, New Hampshire, and had the first big
thrill of his musical life when Earl invited him to sit in at Tupelo
Music Hall (Londonderry, NH) a few months later. After graduating from
high school Jonah hit the road and started a solo performance and
recording career. The first year out of high school he had released one
EP (Eldawise) and a full-length record (Criminal Man) and was
performing at the Newport Folk Festival (summer 2012). A year later he
was signed to Yep Roc Records and the company released his next two
records, Clover Lane (2014) and Thousand Mile Night (2016). Since 2014
he has had success in the streaming world, racking up over 10 million
plays on Spotify. He has also collaborated and worked in the studio with
notable list of musicians including Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), John
McCauley (Deer Tick), Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson), Scarlett Rivera
(Bob Dylan), Ben Knox Miller (The Low Anthem) Anderson East, Sam Amidon,
Greg Leisz, James Gadson, Eric Heywood, and many more.
Jonah
has shared stages throughout the United States and Europe with artists
including Greg Allman, Tony Joe White, Dave & Phil Alvin, Chris
Smither, Justin Townes Earle, Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Paxton, Burton
Cummings, Chuck Prophet, Mandolin Orange, to name a few. He has produced
albums for Julie Rhodes and Bill Scorzari.
When Kevin met Jonah at National Guitar Workshop, he was already an
accomplished musician. At five he started studying piano with his
mother, a classically trained pianist, and he began playing drums at
ten. In high school he entered the jazz band and pit orchestra, joined a
Youth Orchestra, and took marimba and concert percussion under the
tutelage of Peter Saleh.
Kevin
graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans, where he was inspired
by Brian Blade and Stanton Moore, jazz and funk drummers who had
attended Loyola. Experiencing music in New Orleans opened him to worlds
of hip-hop, neo-soul, traditional/modern jazz, Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban
styles. At Loyola, he was featured in masterclass sessions with
trumpeter Sean Jones, saxophonist Miguel Zenon, drummer Henry Cole, and
percussionist Pedrito Martinez. At 19 he performed at the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival with the Loyola Jazz Band and later with
Mikayla Braun. He became an in-demand multi-stylist drummer playing with
gypsy jazz groups, electronic/hip-hop, indie-folk, and
singer/songwriter acts. In addition to songwriting and playing with
Dharmasoul, Kevin currently teaches private percussion lessons to all
ages in Princeton, NJ.
It
was Jonah’s album Clover Lane that brought Jonah and Kevin back
together again in 2014. During Kevin’s senior year in college, he
received a Facebook message from Jonah asking if Kevin could accompany
him at the SXSW festival to support Jonah’s solo release Clover Lane.
The synergy between them that they had experienced years before at that
Hartford bar was reignited. By 2017 the two musicians had formed a true
musical brotherhood and were touring throughout the country backing up
other artists as well as playing Tolchin’s original solo work.
July 1st, the duo Dharmasoul was formed and in August 2017 they
recorded their debut album, LIGHTNING KID at Verdant Studios (Pete
Weiss) in Athens, VT, with friends Brendan Moore (keys), Matt Murphy
(bass), and Laurence Scudder (viola). The crew recorded the full record
live, with minimal overdubs. Following the session at Verdant Studios,
they added overdubs with Cindy Walker and Marie Lewey (who Jonah had
worked with when he produced both “Bound to Meet the Devil” by Julie
Rhodes, and “Through These Waves”, for Bill Scorzari). who recorded
background vocals at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama; engineered
by John Gifford III (who engineered Jonah’s “Thousand Mile Night”). The
album will be released in Spring 2018. When it comes to what
Dharmasoul means for them, Jonah and Kevin both reference not only their
great respect for one another’s talents but also their friendship.
This project feels like something that’s been waiting for ten years,"
comments Tolchin. "Yet it couldn’t have happened any sooner than it did.
LIGHTNING KID represents a culmination of our collective influences
throughout our years as music appreciators and players, ranging from
folk and world music to funk, jazz, blues, rock, hip-hop, R&B, and
gospel. Adds Clifford, "We don’t think about fitting into specific
genres. That’s what makes our partnership so special. We have an
openness and a clarity that respects and honors freedom of musical
expression."
Dharmasoul press photos
Click each photo for high res.
Above credit: Joe del Tufo / Moonloop Photography
Above credit: Augusta Rose
Above credit: Augusta Rose
Monday, March 12, 2018
"SOULFUL" (NPR) LIZ BRASHER FEATURED ON NPR MUSIC, NPR WEEKEND EDITION SXSW PREVIEWS
Fat Possum artist Liz Brasher was featured on NPR Weekend Edition to
preview her SXSW set on Saturday. Host Don Gonyea said she possesses a "great
soulful voice." NPR Music's Stephen Thompson said, "You hear traces of
Stax Records soul music but you also hear girl groups but then modern
ballad singers. There's a lot going on in her sound. I think she's got
enormous potential." Her new EP 'Outcast' comes out April 27.
Catch her live at SXSW:
Wed Mar 14 // WMOT SXSW Party @ El Mercado - 4:30pm (broadcast live)
Wed Mar 14 // NPR Music SXSW Showcase @ Stubb's - 11pm
Thur Mar 15 // Flatstock Stage @ Austin Convention Center - 1:30pm
Thur Mar 15 // Tacodeli Day Party @ Yeti Flagship - 5:30pm
Additional tour dates: http://www.lizbrasher.com/
Catch her live at SXSW:
Wed Mar 14 // WMOT SXSW Party @ El Mercado - 4:30pm (broadcast live)
Wed Mar 14 // NPR Music SXSW Showcase @ Stubb's - 11pm
Thur Mar 15 // Flatstock Stage @ Austin Convention Center - 1:30pm
Thur Mar 15 // Tacodeli Day Party @ Yeti Flagship - 5:30pm
Additional tour dates: http://www.lizbrasher.com/
Friday, March 9, 2018
LELAND SUNDRIES: NEW INDIE POP SINGLE; PASTE SESSION; BOWERY BALLROOM DEBUT; SILENT BARN & GREENPOINT GALLERY SHOWS
The NYC rock & roll/Americana band Leland Sundries is busy in early 2018:
+ We completed a Paste Magazine session that streamed live via Facebook and YouTube and is archived on the Paste site: https://www.pastemagazine.com/
+ We were added to the May 18 Low Cut Connie show at Bowery Ballroom, our Bowery Ballroom debut.
+ We released a new indie pop single “Reminiscence Over Diner Spoons."
+ We are also playing shows tonight at Greenpoint Gallery and April 22 at Silent Barn.
+ We’ll be touring and recording in April.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
SONGWRITING LEGEND ERIC ANDERSEN TO MARK 75TH BIRTHDAY WITH ‘THE ESSENTIAL ERIC ANDERSEN’ (SONY LEGACY / REAL GONE) MARCH 30
GUESTS ON FIRST CAREER-SPANNING, MULTI-LABEL 2-DISC COMPILATION INCLUDE
JONI MITCHELL, DAVID BROMBERG, LEON RUSSELL, JOAN BAEZ, RICHARD
THOMPSON, RICK DANKO, PHIL OCHS, & LOU REED
RELEASE & TOUR MARKS FIVE DECADES IN MUSIC FOR MASTER SONGWRITER WHOSE SONGS HAVE BEEN INTERPRETED BY BOB DYLAN, JOHNNY CASH, JUDY COLLINS, LINDA RONSTADT, THE GRATEFUL DEAD, & GILLIAN WELCH
“Impressive… Very few songwriters have built a body of work as consistently strong as Mr. Andersen's.” – New York Times
“Masterwork… Andersen is the most elegant of singers.” – Rolling Stone
“Eric Andersen is a great ballad singer and writer.” – Bob Dylan
"Your song 'Violets of Dawn' got me started writing songs." Leonard Cohen confessed to Eric Andersen, seated side by side, legs in the pool, at the Landmark Hotel, Hollywood, California, in 1967.
Sony Legacy and Real Gone Music will release ‘The Essential Eric Andersen’ on March 30, marking the master songwriter’s 75th birthday as well as five decades in music, with a tour shortly to follow. Andersen’s songs have been interpreted by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, The Grateful Dead, Gillian Welch, Pete Seeger, Fairport Convention, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Eilen Jewell.
The two-disc, 33-track CD or 42 track digital-collection was recorded between 1964 and 2006 originally issued on Vanguard, Columbia, Folkways, Appleseed, Rykodisc, and Arista Records. Performers joining Andersen on the compilation include Joni Mitchell, David Bromberg,Leon Russell, Joan Baez, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, and Lou Reed. Andersen and the late Phil Ochs duet on “Plains of Nebrasky-o.” Andersen’s version of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” recorded in Nashville in 1971 with Bromberg, will see release for the first time. Comprehensive liner notes by the songwriter himself and Rolling Stone and NY Times writer and Lou Reed biographer Anthony DeCurtis accompany the compilation. A press copy of the liner notes is here: http://bit.ly/2D5k63o
Andersen was seemingly involved in every scene of counter-cultural significance, even as his songwriting bona fides mounted over the course of twenty-plus albums: seeing Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and The Everly Brothers in concert as a kid outside Buffalo, NY; spotting
John and Jackie Kennedy leaving a church in southern Massachusetts; playing and trading songs in Greenwich Village in 1964; opening for John Lee Hooker upon his arrival to NYC; meeting beat poets in San Francisco at City Lights and seeing them read the night JFK died; working to register black voters in Liberty, MS in 1965; being on the managerial roster of Brian Epstein (until his untimely death); starring with Edie Sedgwick in an Andy Warhol movie called Space; showing Joni Mitchell open G and D modal tunings on the guitar; playing on the legendary Festival Express (event and film) alongside The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, and Buddy Guy; recording in Nashville in the early ‘70s; being introduced to Cash by Dylan at Newport Folk Fest in 1964 and later appearing on TV’s The Johnny Cash Show; opening for The Doors, Elton John, and The Byrds; living in the Chelsea Hotel in the 1970s alongside Kris Kristofferson, Sam Shepard, and Leonard Cohen; moving to Woodstock in the mid-70s; playing on the first two shows of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour; co-writing with Townes Van Zandt and Lou Reed; moving to Norway and then the Netherlands; and singing with Rick Danko in the trio Danko/Fjeld/Andersen.
The album includes songs from ‘Stages: The Lost Album,’ whose masters were misplaced for two decades. A number of the sessions were produced by famed Nashville producer Norbert Putnam (who also produced Jimmy Buffet, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dan Fogelberg, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, and played bass for Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Jerry Jeff Walker) and featuring a list of ace Nashville session men such as Charlie McCoy, Kenny Buttrey, Eddie Hinton, and others.
“The Songpoet,” a full-length documentary film on Andersen is expected to be completed sometime later this year.
The New York Times music critic and author Robert Palmer said, “great American music from one of the masters.”
All Music called Eric’s music “timeless… The archetypal, literate romantic.”
Eric Andersen Tour Dates:
April 6 – Green Brook, NJ – House Concert
April 9 – New York, NY – City Vineyard at Pier 26
April 11 – Plainville, CT – Church of our Savior
April 12 – Boston, MA – City Winery
April 13 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Caffe Lena
April 15 – Piermont, NY – The Turning Point
April 16 – Buffalo, NY – Sportsmen’s Tavern
April 18 – Worthington, OH – Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza
April 19 – Cleveland, OH - Nighttown
April 20 – Oxford, NY – 6 on the Square
April 25 – Santa Ynez, CA – Tales from the Tavern
April 27 - Sacramento, CA - The Side Door at the Fifth String
April 29 – Soquel, CA – Michael’s On Main
May 3 - Los Angeles, CA - The GRAMMY Museum (Q&A and short set)
May 4 – National City, CA – AMSD Concerts
May 5 – Santa Monica, CA – McCabe’s
May 6 – Altadena, CA – The Coffee Gallery Backstage
May 11 – Portland, OR – The Old Church
May 12 – Grants Pass, OR – House Concert
May 24 – Marlboro, NY – The Falcon
'The Essential Eric Andersen' 2CD track list:
Disc 1
1. Everything Ain’t Been Said
2. Dusty Box Car Wall
3. (We Were) Foolish Like The Flowers (featuring Bruce Langhorne)
4. Dream To Rimbaud
5. Secrets
6. I Will Wait
7. Waves Of Freedom
8. Mama Tried (featuring David Bromberg – previously unreleased)
9. Is It Really Love At All
10. Florentine
11. Blue River (featuring Joni Mitchell)
12. Pearl’s Goodtime Blues
13. Woman, She Was Gentle (featuring Joan Baez and Leon Russell)
14. Moonchild River Song (featuring Dan Fogelberg, Debbie Green Andersen, and Pete Drake)
15. Time Run Like A Freight Train (featuring Dan Fogelberg)
16. Wild Crow Blues (featuring Leon Russell and Pete Drake)
Disc 2
1. The Blues Keep Fallin’ Like The Rain (featuring Tim Scott and Maria Muldaur)
2. Thirsty Boots (Live at the Bitter End)
3. Close The Door Lightly (When You Go)
4. Violets Of Dawn (Live at the Bitter End)
5. Messiah
6. Belgian Bar
7. Trouble In Paris
8. Hills Of Tuscany (featuring Richard Thompson)
9. You Can’t Relive The Past (featuring Lou Reed)
10. Rain Falls Down In Amsterdam
11. Keep This Love Alive (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
12. Driftin’ Away (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
13. Foghorn
14. Salt On Your Skin (Live featuring Inge Andersen and Michele Gazich)
15. Don’t It Make You Wanna Sing The Blues (Live featuring the Spoonful of Blues Band)
16. Under The Shadows (featuring a duet with Sari Andersen)
17. Plains Of Nebrasky-O (duet with Phil Ochs)
'The Essential Eric Andersen' Digital Album Track List:
1. Everything Ain’t Been Said
2. Dusty Box Car Wall
3. (We Were) Foolish Like The Flowers (featuring Bruce Langhorne)
4. Dream To Rimbaud
5. Secrets
6. I Will Wait
7. Waves Of Freedom
8. Come To My Bedside, My Darlin’
9. Mama Tried (featuring David Bromberg – previously unreleased)
10. Is It Really Love At All
11. Florentine
12. Sheila
13. Blue River (featuring Joni Mitchell)
14. Pearl’s Goodtime Blues
15. Woman, She Was Gentle (featuring Joan Baez and Leon Russell)
16. Moonchild River Song (featuring Dan Fogelberg, Debbie Green Andersen, and Pete Drake)
17. Time Run Like A Freight Train (featuring Dan Fogelberg)
18. Wild Crow Blues (featuring Leon Russell and Pete Drake)
19. Be True To You
20. The Blues Keep Fallin’ Like The Rain (featuring Tim Scott and Maria Muldaur)
21. I Shall Go Unbounded
22. Thirsty Boots (Live at the Bitter End)
23. Close The Door Lightly (When You Go)
24. Violets Of Dawn (Live at the Bitter End)
25. Come Runnin’ Like A Friend
26. Messiah
27. Ghosts Upon The Road
28. Belgian Bar
29. Listen To The Rain
30. Trouble In Paris
31. Rain Falls Down In Amsterdam
32. Goin’ Gone
33. Hills Of Tuscany (featuring Richard Thompson)
34. You Can’t Relive The Past (featuring Lou Reed)
35. Keep This Love Alive (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
36. Driftin’ Away (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
37. Foghorn
38. Under The Shadows (featuring a duet with Sari Andersen)
39. Salt On Your Skin (Live featuring Inge Andersen and Michele Gazich)
40. Singin’ Man
41. Don’t It Make You Wanna Sing The Blues (Live featuring the Spoonful of Blues Band)
42. Plains Of Nebrasky-O (duet with Phil Ochs)
RELEASE & TOUR MARKS FIVE DECADES IN MUSIC FOR MASTER SONGWRITER WHOSE SONGS HAVE BEEN INTERPRETED BY BOB DYLAN, JOHNNY CASH, JUDY COLLINS, LINDA RONSTADT, THE GRATEFUL DEAD, & GILLIAN WELCH
“Impressive… Very few songwriters have built a body of work as consistently strong as Mr. Andersen's.” – New York Times
“Masterwork… Andersen is the most elegant of singers.” – Rolling Stone
“Eric Andersen is a great ballad singer and writer.” – Bob Dylan
"Your song 'Violets of Dawn' got me started writing songs." Leonard Cohen confessed to Eric Andersen, seated side by side, legs in the pool, at the Landmark Hotel, Hollywood, California, in 1967.
Sony Legacy and Real Gone Music will release ‘The Essential Eric Andersen’ on March 30, marking the master songwriter’s 75th birthday as well as five decades in music, with a tour shortly to follow. Andersen’s songs have been interpreted by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, The Grateful Dead, Gillian Welch, Pete Seeger, Fairport Convention, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Eilen Jewell.
The two-disc, 33-track CD or 42 track digital-collection was recorded between 1964 and 2006 originally issued on Vanguard, Columbia, Folkways, Appleseed, Rykodisc, and Arista Records. Performers joining Andersen on the compilation include Joni Mitchell, David Bromberg,Leon Russell, Joan Baez, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, and Lou Reed. Andersen and the late Phil Ochs duet on “Plains of Nebrasky-o.” Andersen’s version of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” recorded in Nashville in 1971 with Bromberg, will see release for the first time. Comprehensive liner notes by the songwriter himself and Rolling Stone and NY Times writer and Lou Reed biographer Anthony DeCurtis accompany the compilation. A press copy of the liner notes is here: http://bit.ly/2D5k63o
Andersen was seemingly involved in every scene of counter-cultural significance, even as his songwriting bona fides mounted over the course of twenty-plus albums: seeing Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and The Everly Brothers in concert as a kid outside Buffalo, NY; spotting
John and Jackie Kennedy leaving a church in southern Massachusetts; playing and trading songs in Greenwich Village in 1964; opening for John Lee Hooker upon his arrival to NYC; meeting beat poets in San Francisco at City Lights and seeing them read the night JFK died; working to register black voters in Liberty, MS in 1965; being on the managerial roster of Brian Epstein (until his untimely death); starring with Edie Sedgwick in an Andy Warhol movie called Space; showing Joni Mitchell open G and D modal tunings on the guitar; playing on the legendary Festival Express (event and film) alongside The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, and Buddy Guy; recording in Nashville in the early ‘70s; being introduced to Cash by Dylan at Newport Folk Fest in 1964 and later appearing on TV’s The Johnny Cash Show; opening for The Doors, Elton John, and The Byrds; living in the Chelsea Hotel in the 1970s alongside Kris Kristofferson, Sam Shepard, and Leonard Cohen; moving to Woodstock in the mid-70s; playing on the first two shows of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour; co-writing with Townes Van Zandt and Lou Reed; moving to Norway and then the Netherlands; and singing with Rick Danko in the trio Danko/Fjeld/Andersen.
The album includes songs from ‘Stages: The Lost Album,’ whose masters were misplaced for two decades. A number of the sessions were produced by famed Nashville producer Norbert Putnam (who also produced Jimmy Buffet, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dan Fogelberg, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, and played bass for Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Jerry Jeff Walker) and featuring a list of ace Nashville session men such as Charlie McCoy, Kenny Buttrey, Eddie Hinton, and others.
“The Songpoet,” a full-length documentary film on Andersen is expected to be completed sometime later this year.
The New York Times music critic and author Robert Palmer said, “great American music from one of the masters.”
All Music called Eric’s music “timeless… The archetypal, literate romantic.”
Eric Andersen Tour Dates:
April 6 – Green Brook, NJ – House Concert
April 9 – New York, NY – City Vineyard at Pier 26
April 11 – Plainville, CT – Church of our Savior
April 12 – Boston, MA – City Winery
April 13 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Caffe Lena
April 15 – Piermont, NY – The Turning Point
April 16 – Buffalo, NY – Sportsmen’s Tavern
April 18 – Worthington, OH – Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza
April 19 – Cleveland, OH - Nighttown
April 20 – Oxford, NY – 6 on the Square
April 25 – Santa Ynez, CA – Tales from the Tavern
April 27 - Sacramento, CA - The Side Door at the Fifth String
April 29 – Soquel, CA – Michael’s On Main
May 3 - Los Angeles, CA - The GRAMMY Museum (Q&A and short set)
May 4 – National City, CA – AMSD Concerts
May 5 – Santa Monica, CA – McCabe’s
May 6 – Altadena, CA – The Coffee Gallery Backstage
May 11 – Portland, OR – The Old Church
May 12 – Grants Pass, OR – House Concert
May 24 – Marlboro, NY – The Falcon
'The Essential Eric Andersen' 2CD track list:
Disc 1
1. Everything Ain’t Been Said
2. Dusty Box Car Wall
3. (We Were) Foolish Like The Flowers (featuring Bruce Langhorne)
4. Dream To Rimbaud
5. Secrets
6. I Will Wait
7. Waves Of Freedom
8. Mama Tried (featuring David Bromberg – previously unreleased)
9. Is It Really Love At All
10. Florentine
11. Blue River (featuring Joni Mitchell)
12. Pearl’s Goodtime Blues
13. Woman, She Was Gentle (featuring Joan Baez and Leon Russell)
14. Moonchild River Song (featuring Dan Fogelberg, Debbie Green Andersen, and Pete Drake)
15. Time Run Like A Freight Train (featuring Dan Fogelberg)
16. Wild Crow Blues (featuring Leon Russell and Pete Drake)
Disc 2
1. The Blues Keep Fallin’ Like The Rain (featuring Tim Scott and Maria Muldaur)
2. Thirsty Boots (Live at the Bitter End)
3. Close The Door Lightly (When You Go)
4. Violets Of Dawn (Live at the Bitter End)
5. Messiah
6. Belgian Bar
7. Trouble In Paris
8. Hills Of Tuscany (featuring Richard Thompson)
9. You Can’t Relive The Past (featuring Lou Reed)
10. Rain Falls Down In Amsterdam
11. Keep This Love Alive (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
12. Driftin’ Away (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
13. Foghorn
14. Salt On Your Skin (Live featuring Inge Andersen and Michele Gazich)
15. Don’t It Make You Wanna Sing The Blues (Live featuring the Spoonful of Blues Band)
16. Under The Shadows (featuring a duet with Sari Andersen)
17. Plains Of Nebrasky-O (duet with Phil Ochs)
'The Essential Eric Andersen' Digital Album Track List:
1. Everything Ain’t Been Said
2. Dusty Box Car Wall
3. (We Were) Foolish Like The Flowers (featuring Bruce Langhorne)
4. Dream To Rimbaud
5. Secrets
6. I Will Wait
7. Waves Of Freedom
8. Come To My Bedside, My Darlin’
9. Mama Tried (featuring David Bromberg – previously unreleased)
10. Is It Really Love At All
11. Florentine
12. Sheila
13. Blue River (featuring Joni Mitchell)
14. Pearl’s Goodtime Blues
15. Woman, She Was Gentle (featuring Joan Baez and Leon Russell)
16. Moonchild River Song (featuring Dan Fogelberg, Debbie Green Andersen, and Pete Drake)
17. Time Run Like A Freight Train (featuring Dan Fogelberg)
18. Wild Crow Blues (featuring Leon Russell and Pete Drake)
19. Be True To You
20. The Blues Keep Fallin’ Like The Rain (featuring Tim Scott and Maria Muldaur)
21. I Shall Go Unbounded
22. Thirsty Boots (Live at the Bitter End)
23. Close The Door Lightly (When You Go)
24. Violets Of Dawn (Live at the Bitter End)
25. Come Runnin’ Like A Friend
26. Messiah
27. Ghosts Upon The Road
28. Belgian Bar
29. Listen To The Rain
30. Trouble In Paris
31. Rain Falls Down In Amsterdam
32. Goin’ Gone
33. Hills Of Tuscany (featuring Richard Thompson)
34. You Can’t Relive The Past (featuring Lou Reed)
35. Keep This Love Alive (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
36. Driftin’ Away (featuring Rick Danko and Fjeld Andersen)
37. Foghorn
38. Under The Shadows (featuring a duet with Sari Andersen)
39. Salt On Your Skin (Live featuring Inge Andersen and Michele Gazich)
40. Singin’ Man
41. Don’t It Make You Wanna Sing The Blues (Live featuring the Spoonful of Blues Band)
42. Plains Of Nebrasky-O (duet with Phil Ochs)
ALWAYS BECOMING: THE SONGS OF ERIC ANDERSEN
BY ANTHONY DeCURTIS
“I don’t know if everything’s been said,” Eric Andersen sings on the heart-rending opening track of this deeply rich, career-spanning retrospective. It’s a characteristic declaration. Andersen is a seeker, and words are his method of conjuring the meaning of all that he encounters on his journey. In this song, Andersen is struggling to understand a relationship that has disintegrated, as so many do, for no discernible reason. He’s not asking for love, though he’s aching from its loss. What he desires is some kind of mutual understanding, a comprehensible answer to that haunting question: What happened to us? No such answer emerges, but, as Bob Dylan once sang, “a question in your nerves is lit,” and it simmers long after “Everything Ain’t Been Said” comes to a close.
Andersen recorded that song when he was twenty-one, and it appears on his debut album, Today is the Highway, which came out in 1965. In the more than fifty years since that time, Andersen has continued his search for meaning, drawing on folk, blues, country, rock, and jazz to provide the musical backdrop to what is something like a compelling musical autobiography. So many of the songs on this set summon images and themes of movement and travel, lyrical expressions of Andersen’s artistic restlessness. He has always loved to travel, and varying places and climes act as spurs to his imagination, as if all journeys are ultimately internal, all destinations a place inside your mind. Once they have been seen, they can become songs or, as Andersen memorably puts it, “interior documentaries.” “It was always the journey that mattered, never the destination,” he says. “Songs can be likened to diary entries, musical memories that can evolve and sharpen with time. I always believed writing was a way of ‘living life twice.’ It’s true. The meaning of songs can deepen like wine.”
While Andersen first made his mark as a central figure in the folk revival that took place in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, he has always found the “folk singer” box constricting. One of the goals of this collection is to demonstrate how wide his musical interests have ranged. “I think some people may be surprised when listening to this album,” he says, “because some of it is unexpected musically and it shows that my work was never strictly coming out of a folk music milieu. I wanted to be a poetical and musical artist, and I never liked being labeled a folk singer. I got into this business because I wanted to be a writer and create something new, to mix it up a bit.” He also notes that he was never an overtly political songwriter, a so-called “protest singer,” as were so many of his peers back in his Greenwich Village days. “I preferred Village artists like Fred Neil and Tim Hardin,” Andersen says, citing two songwriters who shared his lyricism and his inclination to look inward for inspiration, rather than to current events. He adds, “I wanted to experiment lyrically and musically. I listened to the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Son House, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus when I was starting out. Those were my real musical roots.” Still, he notes that for any artist who cares about the world around him, “protest songs find you when you’re not looking.” A certain song performed in a certain context can take on political import. For example, Andersen performed his beautifully uplifting ballad “Waves of Freedom” in Mississippi churches when he accompanied progressive journalist Jack Newfield on a voter registration drive in 1965. And his chilling “Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam” documents the revival of Nazism in Europe in the Nineties, a development that, horrifyingly, continues in our own country and into our new century.
To realize his songs, Andersen always called on the best and most empathetic players he could find. His collaborators on this set include the likes of Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, David Bromberg, Joan Baez, and Leon Russell. But whether Andersen is performing with a stellar group of players or simply accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, what comes through is the extraordinary depth, the endless suggestiveness, of his songs. His voice, too, is their perfect conduit. It has deepened and roughened over the years, but what has remained is its undeniable warmth and intimacy, the sense that Andersen is speaking directly to you, heart to heart, soul to soul.
And that’s why these thirty-three songs, recorded over more than five decades and drawn from more than a dozen different albums, as well as live recordings, unfurl like one long song, shifting movements in an ongoing, lifelong composition. The energy of a rough-hewn early track like “Dusty Box Car Wall,” from 1964, animates a later art song like the dreamily evocative “Hills of Tuscany,” from his 1998 album Memory of the Future. “(We Were) Foolish like the Flowers” nestles comfortably next to “Dream to Rimbaud”—both are visionary transports in which the singer’s mind is “sailing without a sail.” Early classics like “Thirsty Boots” and the exquisite “Violets of Dawn” are presented here in later versions performed on stage, and Andersen revisits “Close the Door Lightly When You Go,” which was originally released in the mid-Sixties, more than a decade later.
Andersen remains active as a writer and performer, and never enjoys indulging in the backwards glance. “You Can’t Relive the Past” one of his songs bluntly declares, and it’s a future-forward pronouncement that he sees as essential to living a creative life. Nostalgia is a kind of death. So combing through his life’s work to pull together this collection was not at all an effort that came naturally to him. “I wanted to run the other way,” he says when the prospect of an Essentials collection first came up. He initially didn’t want to be involved in it. “I thought others might have a better overview of my work than I did,” he says. Happily, “it dawned on me that that was not the case,” and good sense prevailed.
Then Andersen got to work. He describes the process of selecting the songs for this collection as a “search,” an effort “to peer beyond the obvious and see the magic of overlooked material, songs that many fans had never heard before or even imagined I had written.” The emotional coherence, the sense of this collection expressing its own musical integrity, is no accident. Andersen set out with that goal in mind. “I didn’t want this set to be scatter-shot,” he says. “I wanted it to be a sincere listening experience that builds over a long span of time. I wanted it to be something people could enjoy musically in its own right. I confess I made some new discoveries—and I sometimes even surprised myself.” As one example, he cites the powerfully emotional “Keep This Love Alive,” which he wrote and recorded with Rick Danko, formerly of the Band. The performance is lled with conviction. “I found a lot of humanity and heart in that duet,” he says. That’s fitting, because it was when Andersen first visited the Band in upstate New York that he found the inspiration for what is perhaps his best-known song. While standing on a bridge gazing down at the owing Hudson, the spark for the gorgeous “Blue River” took fire in his mind.
Ultimately, a mystery lies at the heart of so much of Andersen’s work, and perhaps in the core of all great art. Looking back provided many discoveries, but no final answers. And that’s all to the good. “It’s always been my belief that the artist or creator is only a medium,” Andersen says. “Truth be told, with some songs I don’t have a clue where they came from, or why or how I wrote them. Songs come as visitations and the writer becomes a mere stenographer, grabbing them out of the air. It’s almost an unconscious effort.
“I’ve never been a craftsman hovering and sweating over a drafting table,” he concludes, “though I’ve always worked diligently to make my visions concrete. I’ve always held high standards and tried to build songs that could stand the test of time. After all, isn’t the goal of any true artist to attain a state of always becoming, to make the invisible visible? I wanted to write songs that I could listen to fty years down the line. And in most instances, I believe that to be true.”
“I don’t know if everything’s been said,” Eric Andersen sings on the heart-rending opening track of this deeply rich, career-spanning retrospective. It’s a characteristic declaration. Andersen is a seeker, and words are his method of conjuring the meaning of all that he encounters on his journey. In this song, Andersen is struggling to understand a relationship that has disintegrated, as so many do, for no discernible reason. He’s not asking for love, though he’s aching from its loss. What he desires is some kind of mutual understanding, a comprehensible answer to that haunting question: What happened to us? No such answer emerges, but, as Bob Dylan once sang, “a question in your nerves is lit,” and it simmers long after “Everything Ain’t Been Said” comes to a close.
Andersen recorded that song when he was twenty-one, and it appears on his debut album, Today is the Highway, which came out in 1965. In the more than fifty years since that time, Andersen has continued his search for meaning, drawing on folk, blues, country, rock, and jazz to provide the musical backdrop to what is something like a compelling musical autobiography. So many of the songs on this set summon images and themes of movement and travel, lyrical expressions of Andersen’s artistic restlessness. He has always loved to travel, and varying places and climes act as spurs to his imagination, as if all journeys are ultimately internal, all destinations a place inside your mind. Once they have been seen, they can become songs or, as Andersen memorably puts it, “interior documentaries.” “It was always the journey that mattered, never the destination,” he says. “Songs can be likened to diary entries, musical memories that can evolve and sharpen with time. I always believed writing was a way of ‘living life twice.’ It’s true. The meaning of songs can deepen like wine.”
While Andersen first made his mark as a central figure in the folk revival that took place in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, he has always found the “folk singer” box constricting. One of the goals of this collection is to demonstrate how wide his musical interests have ranged. “I think some people may be surprised when listening to this album,” he says, “because some of it is unexpected musically and it shows that my work was never strictly coming out of a folk music milieu. I wanted to be a poetical and musical artist, and I never liked being labeled a folk singer. I got into this business because I wanted to be a writer and create something new, to mix it up a bit.” He also notes that he was never an overtly political songwriter, a so-called “protest singer,” as were so many of his peers back in his Greenwich Village days. “I preferred Village artists like Fred Neil and Tim Hardin,” Andersen says, citing two songwriters who shared his lyricism and his inclination to look inward for inspiration, rather than to current events. He adds, “I wanted to experiment lyrically and musically. I listened to the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Son House, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus when I was starting out. Those were my real musical roots.” Still, he notes that for any artist who cares about the world around him, “protest songs find you when you’re not looking.” A certain song performed in a certain context can take on political import. For example, Andersen performed his beautifully uplifting ballad “Waves of Freedom” in Mississippi churches when he accompanied progressive journalist Jack Newfield on a voter registration drive in 1965. And his chilling “Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam” documents the revival of Nazism in Europe in the Nineties, a development that, horrifyingly, continues in our own country and into our new century.
To realize his songs, Andersen always called on the best and most empathetic players he could find. His collaborators on this set include the likes of Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, David Bromberg, Joan Baez, and Leon Russell. But whether Andersen is performing with a stellar group of players or simply accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, what comes through is the extraordinary depth, the endless suggestiveness, of his songs. His voice, too, is their perfect conduit. It has deepened and roughened over the years, but what has remained is its undeniable warmth and intimacy, the sense that Andersen is speaking directly to you, heart to heart, soul to soul.
And that’s why these thirty-three songs, recorded over more than five decades and drawn from more than a dozen different albums, as well as live recordings, unfurl like one long song, shifting movements in an ongoing, lifelong composition. The energy of a rough-hewn early track like “Dusty Box Car Wall,” from 1964, animates a later art song like the dreamily evocative “Hills of Tuscany,” from his 1998 album Memory of the Future. “(We Were) Foolish like the Flowers” nestles comfortably next to “Dream to Rimbaud”—both are visionary transports in which the singer’s mind is “sailing without a sail.” Early classics like “Thirsty Boots” and the exquisite “Violets of Dawn” are presented here in later versions performed on stage, and Andersen revisits “Close the Door Lightly When You Go,” which was originally released in the mid-Sixties, more than a decade later.
Andersen remains active as a writer and performer, and never enjoys indulging in the backwards glance. “You Can’t Relive the Past” one of his songs bluntly declares, and it’s a future-forward pronouncement that he sees as essential to living a creative life. Nostalgia is a kind of death. So combing through his life’s work to pull together this collection was not at all an effort that came naturally to him. “I wanted to run the other way,” he says when the prospect of an Essentials collection first came up. He initially didn’t want to be involved in it. “I thought others might have a better overview of my work than I did,” he says. Happily, “it dawned on me that that was not the case,” and good sense prevailed.
Then Andersen got to work. He describes the process of selecting the songs for this collection as a “search,” an effort “to peer beyond the obvious and see the magic of overlooked material, songs that many fans had never heard before or even imagined I had written.” The emotional coherence, the sense of this collection expressing its own musical integrity, is no accident. Andersen set out with that goal in mind. “I didn’t want this set to be scatter-shot,” he says. “I wanted it to be a sincere listening experience that builds over a long span of time. I wanted it to be something people could enjoy musically in its own right. I confess I made some new discoveries—and I sometimes even surprised myself.” As one example, he cites the powerfully emotional “Keep This Love Alive,” which he wrote and recorded with Rick Danko, formerly of the Band. The performance is lled with conviction. “I found a lot of humanity and heart in that duet,” he says. That’s fitting, because it was when Andersen first visited the Band in upstate New York that he found the inspiration for what is perhaps his best-known song. While standing on a bridge gazing down at the owing Hudson, the spark for the gorgeous “Blue River” took fire in his mind.
Ultimately, a mystery lies at the heart of so much of Andersen’s work, and perhaps in the core of all great art. Looking back provided many discoveries, but no final answers. And that’s all to the good. “It’s always been my belief that the artist or creator is only a medium,” Andersen says. “Truth be told, with some songs I don’t have a clue where they came from, or why or how I wrote them. Songs come as visitations and the writer becomes a mere stenographer, grabbing them out of the air. It’s almost an unconscious effort.
“I’ve never been a craftsman hovering and sweating over a drafting table,” he concludes, “though I’ve always worked diligently to make my visions concrete. I’ve always held high standards and tried to build songs that could stand the test of time. After all, isn’t the goal of any true artist to attain a state of always becoming, to make the invisible visible? I wanted to write songs that I could listen to fty years down the line. And in most instances, I believe that to be true.”
Friday, March 2, 2018
GARAGE/SOUL OF FAT POSSUM’S LIZ BRASHER HEADED TO NPR STAGE AT SXSW, GROOVE-HEAVY NEW EP ‘OUTCAST’ ON FAT POSSUM DUE APRIL 27
BRASHER, A MUSICAL AND ETHNIC OUTCAST, EXPLORES LIFE ON THE OUTSIDE
44-DATE TOUR CONFIRMED
“Artist to watch in 2018.” - NPR Music
"Timelessly American… Brasher's strain of soul [is] one that's flush with lyrical nods to Biblical images, Rubber Soul harmonies and a gruff reverence to its southern roots." - Billboard
Fat Possum’s “big-sounding” (Brooklyn Vegan) artist Liz Brasher will perform on the NPR Music stage at SXSW and will launch a 44-date tour as Fat Possum Records has confirmed the release of her EP ‘Outcast’ on April 27. a first-generation Dominican-Italian, this self-described outcast doesn’t fit neatly into any categories musically or personally. Brasher says, “I’ve never fit into a set group, genre or ethnicity and my heart goes out to other outcasts.” She confesses that being an outcast is also an attitude she carries, saying, “I don’t like rules.”
“Body of Mine” postable link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Produced by Brasher, Scott Bomar of the Bo-Keys, and Bruce Watson in her new hometown of Memphis, the ‘Outcast’ EP draws as much from garage rock, classic soul and funk, and ‘60s girl group pop sounds as from the music she grew up singing in church. Often starting her songwriting with a beat, Brasher wrote several of the songs under the influence of her recent move to Memphis, including the hard-grooving “Come My Way,” the dark “Feel Something,” and the title track. “Feel Something” is simultaneously an observation on culture, where it takes more and more to shock onlookers, and a portrayal of a character who is constantly seeking attention. The EP also features Al Gamble (St. Paul & The Broken Bones, The Hold Steady, Robert Finley) on keys.
NPR Music said, “Good-God-Hallelujah… Brasher (rhymes with Frazer) shouts, rocks, rolls, and tears it up on stage; her music will dig down deep to touch your soul.” She’s also earned love from Spotify’s Fresh Folk playlist.
‘OUTCAST’ EP TRACK LISTING
1. Body Of Mine
2. Come My way
3. Feel something
4. Outcast
5. Remain
6. Cold Baby
Preorder link: http://store.fatpossum.com/
LIZ BRASHER PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
March 2 - Austin, TX - ACL Live at the Moody Theater (w/ the Mavericks)
March 3 - Austin, TX - ACL Live at the Moody Theater (w/ the Mavericks)
March 3 - Austin, TX - The Blackheart (midnight)
March 14 - Austin, TX - WMOT interview at El Mercado (4:30pm, SXSW)
March 14 - Austin, TX - NPR Stage at Stubb’s (SXSW)
March 15 - Austin, TX - Yeti (5:30pm, SXSW)
April 27 - Oxford, MS - Double Decker Arts Festival
April 29 - Columbus, MS - Sunstroke House
May 2 - Nashville, TN - The Basement
May 3 - Birmingham, AL - The Nick
May 4 - Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees Festival
May 6 - West Palm Beach, FL - Sun Fest
May 8 - New Orleans, LA - House Of Blues *
May 10 - Austin, TX - Mohawk *
May 11 - Dallas, TX - House Of Blues Cambridge *
May 13 - Phoenix, AZ - Last Exit Live *
May 14 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues Voodoo Room *
May 15 - West Hollywood, CA - Peppermint Club *
May 16 - San Francisco, CA - Café Du Nord *
May 18 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Lounge *
May 20 - Seattle, WA - Barboza *
May 22 - Bozeman, MT - Filling Station *
May 23 - Salt Lake City, UT - Rye *
May 24 - Denver, CO - Marquis Theatre *
May 25 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown *
May 26 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry *
May 30 - Nashville, TN - City Winery - Nashville *
May 31 - St Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill - Duck Room *
June 1 - Des Moines, IA - Wooly's *
June 2 - Kearney, NE - Heritage Days *
June 6 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark *
June 7 - Pittsburgh, PA - Spirit Hall *
June 8 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall *
June 9 - Cleveland, OH - Laure Live *
June 12 - Annapolis, MD - Rams Head On Stage *
June 14 - Charleston, SC - Charleston Pour House *
June 15 - Hilton Head Island, SC - Rooftop Bar at Poseidon *
June 17 - Atlanta, GA - City Winery *
June 19 - Washington, DC - City Winery *
June 20 - Pawling, NY - Daryl's House *
June 21 - Sellersville, PA - Sellersville Theater *
June 22 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
June 24 - Holyoke, MA - Iron Horse *
June 25 - Boston, MA - City Winery *
June 28 - Chicago, IL - City Winery *
June 29 - Toledo, OH - Civic Music Hall *
June 30 - Indianapolis, IN -The Vogue *
* with Red Wanting Blue
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